1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air conditioning apparatus for a vehicle in which a warm air passage and a cool air passage are adjacently provided to extend in a vehicle width direction, and first and second side opening portions are arranged to be perpendicular to the vehicle width direction.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional air conditioning apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 7 includes an air conditioning case 101 forming an air passage toward a passenger compartment. Within the air conditioning case 101, an evaporator 102 and a heater core 103 are disposed in parallel in a width direction of a vehicle so that air passes through the evaporator 102 and the heater core 103 in the width direction of the vehicle. Because the heater core 103 is disposed at a downstream air side of the evaporator 102 to cross a part of the air passage, the air passage within the air conditioning case 101 is divided into cool air passage 104 through which cool air bypasses the heater core 103 and a warm air passage 105 through which warm air having passed through the heater core 103 flows. The warm air passage 105 is bent at a downstream air side toward the cool air passage 104. Further, a ratio between an amount of cool air passing through the cool air passage 104 and an amount of warm air passing through the warm air passage 105 is adjusted by an air mixing door 110. In the air conditioning case 101 at a downstream air side of the air passage, there air provided with a face opening portion 107 through which conditioned air is blown toward the upper portion of a passenger in the passenger compartment, a foot opening portion 108 through which conditioned air is blown toward the lower portion of the passenger in the passenger compartment, and a defroster opening portion 109 through which conditioned air is blown toward an inner surface of a windshield.
Further, the face opening portion 107 has a center face opening portion 107a connected to a center face air outlet which is provided at a front center portion in the width direction of the vehicle, and side face opening portions 107b and 107c connected to side face air outlets which is provided at right and left two ends of the passenger compartment. However, in the conventional air conditioning apparatus, warm air flows through the warm air passage 105 as shown by an arrow X, and cool air flows through the cool air passage 104 as shown by arrow Y in FIG. 7. Therefore, cool air readily flows into the side face opening portion 107b, and warm air readily flows into the side face opening portion 107c. As a result, a temperature difference is generated between air blown from the side face opening portion 107b and air blown from the side face opening portion 107c.